Weekly Photo Challenge: Humanity

This week’s challenge is to show humanity.  Its hard to show humanity if we go the idea of compassion and kindness.  However, humanity can also be seen simply as just mankind. So here we are!

Frankfurt, Germany

Egypt

Egypt

Egypt

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Macau

This is also hard because I’m not much of a photographer when it comes to taking pictures of other people, except people I know and for the most part, I avoid putting up other people’s pictures unless I have their consent.  These are random shots I took that reflect a bit on the culture in other a few places I’ve visited.  It could be just crowds and certain people doing various tasks wherever they live. From the street musician from Frankfurt to the how people live in rural areas of Egypt to cultural festivals in Hong Kong along with the crowds up till Macau with its cute postal service booth.

I’m not exactly sure it fits the topic but this is my best effort.

This is my response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Humanity. To check out more, head over HERE!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Monument

In this week’s challenge, show us your take on a monument (broadly defined). It could be a fresh angle on a well-known tourist site, or a place nobody knows outside your community. It doesn’t even have to be an official monument…anything can be monumental as long as it’s imbued with a shared sense of importance.- Weekly Photo Challenge: Monument

As the days close in on my vacation to Hong Kong and the most crazy time of the year at the office is stressing me out, I can’t help but to wander back to my vacation photos (since I barely have time to leave the office to go take pictures). I flipped through some of my photos and found a few.

First up is the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower.

Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower in Hong Kong

Why is this Clock Tower a monument because its one of the few original Hong Kong landmarks that remain.  I’m not a big fan of having landmarks that show the history of Hong Kong especially when they were a colony to be ripped away and revamped.  Its hard to preserve history as it is and going back to Hong Kong is kind of a trip down my own family’s place which I love to learn about.

Next is the Bank of China Tower.

Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong

This is a monument to me because I can remember this being how I remembered Hong Kong even when I was a little girl. The towering high building that was oddly shaped and an obvious skyscraper that stands out.

Third monument is actually the first that I thought of when I read about this challenge: Big Buddha (Tian Tan Buddha) on Lantau Island.

Big Buddha in Lantau Island

I’m not much of a believer in religions.  I follow any particular rituals on my own but I do respect all religions, I guess that makes me agnostic? I believe there is a higher force and that life is ruled by something.  My family is split between Christianity and Buddhism.  As I said, I respect both but Buddhism (aside the rituals) holds a great philosophy of life and I can’t help to feel a little bit safe and sound when I’m looking up at Big Buddha in Lantau as I walk up those neverending flights of stairs to go up.  That makes this a monument.  Plus, its huge and definitely a landmark.

Next and last is the Ruins of St. Paul’s situated in Macau.

Ruins of St. Paul’s, Macau

This is possibly one of the newest place since I only visited Ruins of St. Paul’s on my 2009  trip to Hong Kong and took a day out to visit Macau. The Ruins of St. Paul’s is the most important landmark in Macau.  Everyone who visits goes and I never quite understood visiting ruins (despite my respect for history) but something about this is monumental.  Its high for one and standing in the back panels and looking out of the face of a broken church is just a pretty odd but incredible feeling.  And just look at how many people are there.  This isn’t even high season when I went.  It was sometime in November.

What places are monuments to you?

This is my response to this past week’s photo challenge: monument. You can find more entries HERE!

A Word A Week Photo Challenge:Island

This week’s word from Sue at A Word In Your Ear’s dictionary is ISLAND.  It got me thinking about how many islands I have been on other than the one I live or should I say work on.  Montreal is an island which is why we are surrounded by close to crumbling bridges.  A problem that stresses me out since I live on the island.  But we are not talking about that, my point being, I have been quite a few islands.  They are all around the same areas in the world but still, here we go on a little Island adventure.  But before that, I’d like to urge you to go check out Sue’s beautiful challenge HERE.  If you’d like to take part in this challenge or see other wonderful entries, just click the link.

First up:

Vancouver Island at Mile 0

Very beautiful view looking out onto from Mile 0! Canada is a beautiful country, full of hidden treasures.

Vancouver :Granville Island

Technically, its not an island from what I heard.  Its just part of the name, but it is surrounded by water

Taiwan

A beautiful location but I’m not exactly sure where this is..perhaps Fisherman’s Wharf?

Its been a long time and Taiwan is an island so its beautiful looking out any location

On the surrounding waters of Hong Kong

I am not ON that boat but I am on another boat.

In 2009 when I went back, I went out to try to seeing the endangered pink dolphins and this was on the way.

Giant Buddha at Lantau Island

Hong Kong is surrounded by outlying islands and this is a famous landmark on Lantau Island

Lamma Island

I did an extensive post back in November on my Hong Kong trip and 3 parts dedicated to this wonderful Lamma Island

You can find here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Macau

Looking out on the waters of Macau at night was just beautiful.

My old camera didn’t do a great job at capturing its actual beauty but still, its amazing.

Montreal

For the final stop, I take you back home to the island of Montreal, intertwined with the waterways of St. Lawrence River.

These waters are from exactly there looking out of Old Montreal.

 

 

 

A Word A Week Challenge: Colourful

Last week I did a similar challenge called Colours.  This week A Word in Your Ear‘s dictionary fell on the word Colourful.  I just posted lots of colours with lanterns.  I’m going to try to dig even deeper into my photos to make this a COLOURFUL post.  We can never have enough colours in our life to brighten up every moment!

These colourful pictures are from Hong Kong trip in 2009:

Ngong Ping 360

Visited Macau for a day- Casino Lisboa

Hong Kong Disneyland: Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups sign & Its a Small World Christmas Decorations

You can always count on Disneyland to bring out all the beautiful joyous mood with lots of colourful decor! Happy times and happy moments!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban

Living in the suburbs of Montreal, I can feel the difference in urban and suburban lifestyle.  Not only do I mean the livelihood of the city.  Montreal in itself is a party central with lots of clubs, shopping malls, business buildings and all sorts of transportation.  Its a bustling city with lots to do and plenty to see.  In the summer especially, its filled with festivals for everything like Jazz, Just for Laughs, F1, Nascar, etc.

In urban cities, we are surrounded by what determines the city through the buildings and architecture, the cultural aspects, the arts and so on.  Here are a few things I had the opportunity of taking around where I work in Montreal.

 

View outside the conference room at work

Palais des congres

Street level view of the buildings

With a few views of Montreal, I started looking back at the urban lives of Macau and Hong Kong.  We can see the difference from each of the cities.

The alleys and little streets of Taipa

“Downtown” of Macau

Hong Kong Central–>Background of Shanghai Bank, HSBC Tower and lots of taxis

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

The sun!  I was so happy to see this challenge topic last Friday so that I could go out and take some nice pictures of it and enjoy some sun.  Unfortunately, I had to resort to using old photos as since then, its been everything but sunny.  We seriously had a bit of snow and a whole lot of rain and wind.  The forecast is supposedly going to be like this till the coming weekend at least, I believe.  So much for the 18C forecast for last weekend..lol! We even hailed a few days ago..seriously!!  Today during lunch, the sun did reappear for a little bit…about 30 mins or so.

Here’s the picture of today’s sun that I caught in the little time I had:

And here’s a few more pictures in hope that the sun will shine a bit more frequently:

Mont-Tremblant in Autumn

Magog in February

Macau in November

On the way to Granby Zoo in September

Weekly Photo Challenge: Through

We walk through doorways and look through windows and peer through spaces every single day of our lives.  For those of us who live on an island, we may drive through tunnels to go to and from work or to see family and friends.  Sometimes when we walk through new passages, we don’t know what waits for us at the other side.  Sometimes, walking through certain passages, we see and experience different feelings and revive certain memories.

I love taking pictures of alleyways, tunnels and passageways when I travel.  I remember a few years ago when I went back to visit Hong Kong to mostly see family and one of my friends went with me, I explored Hong Kong from the view of a tourist.  That trip I visited a lot of places that was new to me.

Yau Ma Tei Police Station

Hong Kong Disneyland: Through the gates into a magical and enchanted place!

In the middle of Hong Kong, I went to Macau for one day to explore, therefore going through some more passages and seeing more interesting things that make Macau unique.

Across from Macau’s Colliseum Replica there was a path lined with a few stores,

walking through it felt a bit like walking through “ancient Rome” (at least my impression of it).

Through the alleyways of Macau’s Taipa area

Through Macau’s Venetian Casino in the shopping district:

An amazing feeling to be walking through the replica of Venice with an artificial sky above and narrow waterways with gondolas